The Competition of Intermediate Phases in the Diffusion Zone

The competition of intermediate phases at the initial stages of reactive diffusion is analyzed in the context of two fundamental ideas that were put forward together with K.P. Gurov in 1981–1990. The first deals with the kinetic suppression of certain phases during the nucleation stage by the adjacent phase layers. The second idea considers the thermodynamic suppression of the intermediate phase nucleation due to the dependence of the nucleation barrier on the local concentration gradient in the initial phases. The critical concentration gradient makes the nucleation impossible. The experimental data are shown to justify the theoretical suppositions.